I’ve been working on finalizing recipes this week for the new Notch beers to be released in February of next year. With this release, Notch steps outside of the British Isles and begins to explore Session Beers of other great beer brewing nations. While the Brits coined the phrase “Session”, they are not the only beer brewing nation with a history of lower ABV, highly flavorful and wildly interesting beers. In fact, all great beer brewing nations have a long history of producing great tasting lower ABV beers – Germany, Belgium, Czech Republic, Poland – they just named them something other than “Session”. Table Beer, Tap Beer and Workers Beer are just some of the descriptors, but they all share Session Beer’s attributes – lower ABV, flavorful, long drinking.
One common theme is that many of these Session Beers were brewed for laborers – mill workers, steel workers, glass blowers, farmhands and alike. These beers slaked the thirst brought on by manual labor, yet were low enough in ABV to maintain sobriety. As a friend likes to remind me, you won’t get much hay bailed while drinking a 7% beer. And since these beers were born from some of the great beer brewing nations, they maintained great flavor, with a diversity of styles and tastes.
This year I’ve spent time fiddling with some British inspired Session Ales, as well as my interpretation of the modern day American Session Ale. In 2011, I’m taking it continental and starting with the most consumed beer style from the country with the highest level of beer drinking per capita. It’s not the US, and it’s not Light Beer. It’s the Czech Republic and it is Vyčepni Svetle Pivo – the Czech’s beloved, flavorful, classic lager at a mere 3.8% – 4% ABV. The Notch interpretation will be in the Kvasnicovy style, meaning an unfiltered version of this beer. Vyčepni is also known as workers beer, and beers like this were a mainstay for the famed Bohemian glassblowers. This beer is rarely (if ever) exported to the US, because it just doesn’t travel well. In the US, we get filtered, pasteurized, green bottle Pilsener, and that is the US’s experience with Czech Pilsener – how sad. More news, on this and other beers in store for this year, as we get closer.
In the photo is one of the many 4% Vyčepni Svetle Pivos I enjoyed in the Czech Republic, where multiple pints are a given. Beer keeps coming without ordering, it’s just expected you’ll continue. The only way to stop the flow is to put a coaster on top of your mug, signaling that your session is over. My kind of country.
